SONATINA 10

Proposals may be submitted by an individual or entities specified in the Act on the National Science Centre (“NCN”), where at least one discipline has been assigned a scientific evaluation category pursuant to the Act on Higher Education and Science.

In the case of a group of entities, this condition must be met by the Leader.

In the case of an individual (natural person), this condition must be met the host institution for the project.

A list of entities set forth in the NCN Act includes:

1. universities,
2. federations of science and HE entities,
3. research institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences operating pursuant to the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1796, as amended),
4. research institutes operating pursuant to the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2022, item 498),
5. international research institutes established pursuant to other acts and acting in the Republic of Poland,

5a. Łukasiewicz Centre operating pursuant to the Act on the Łukasiewicz Research Network of 21 February 2019 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 2098),

5b. institutes operating within the Łukasiewicz Research Network,

5c. Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education operating pursuant to the Act on the Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education of 13 September 2018 (Journal of Laws 2024, Items 570 and 1897),

6. Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences,
7. other entities involved in research independently on a continuous basis,
8. groups of entities (at least two entities mentioned in sections 1-7 or at least one institution as such together with at least one company),
9. scientific and industrial centres laid down in the Act on Research Institutes of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2022, items 498),
10. research centres of the Polish Academy of Sciences laid down in the Act on the Polish Academy of Sciences of 30 April 2010 (Journal of Laws of 2020, item 1796),
11. scientific libraries,
12. companies operating as R&D centres within the meaning of the Act on Certain Forms of Support for Innovative Activity of 30 May 2008 (Journal of Laws of 2021, item 706 and of 2022, item 1079),
13. legal entities with registered office in Poland,

13a. President of the Central Office of Measures,

14. natural persons and
15. przedsiębiorca prowadzący badania naukowe w innej formie organizacyjnej niż określone w pkt 1-13a.

Principal investigators must be individuals who meet both of the following conditions:

• have been granted their PhD degree in the proposal submission year or within 3 years prior to the proposal submission year (1 January 2023 - 31 December 2025) or will be granted their PhD by 15 May 2026. The 3-year period may be extended by the career breaks laid down in the Resolution

and

• will be employed in the research project pursuant to a full-time employment contract pursuant on the Regulations, for the research project performance period. They must be employed by another institution than the one from which they have earned their PhD degree, where at least one discipline has been assigned a scientific evaluation category.

Restrictions on submitting proposals are described in Chapter III of the Regulations.

One can act as the principal investigator under a SONATINA call only once.

The project must cover either basic research or applied research.

Proposals may be submitted to any of 26 NCN review panels, within three areas:

• HS – Humanities, Social Sciences and Art Sciences;
• ST – Physical Sciences and Engineering;
• NZ – Life Sciences.

Research projects may be planned for a period of either 24 or 36 months.

Foreign fellowships may last between 3 to 6 months.

Under Annex to the Cooperation Agreement between the NAWA and the NCN of 12 September 2019, the principal investigator in a SONATINA 10 project submits a funding proposal for a foreign fellowship under the NAWA programme for call winners. The proposal must be submitted no earlier than 6 months and no later than 3 months before the fellowship start date. Proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis from 1 March 2027 to 31 December 2028, or until the funds are used.

The following documents must be annexed to the proposal:

• a PDF file of the proposal submitted to the NCN,
• a description of the fellowship, including a schedule and grounds for choosing the host institution and mentor,
• a scanned copy of the invitation from the host institution,
• the grounds for any modifications regarding the fellowship covered by the NCN proposal (if any).

Proposals are subject to an eligibility check at the NAWA. The eligibility of the proposal is confirmed by funding awarded by the NCN. Any changes to the fellowship location must be confirmed by the NAWA (if applicable).

After funding is awarded, the NAWA Director will set out the tasks and deadlines required for the agreement in a decision. The agreement will set out the terms and conditions for the disbursement and settlement of the funds. An agreement template will be available in the NAWA fellowship call text.

The project budget must be justified as regards the subject and scope of research and based on realistic calculations. No maximum or minimum amount of the project budget has been set for SONATINA 10. If an unjustified budget is planned, the proposal may be rejected.

Pursuant to the Regulations, the project budget (eligible cost) includes direct costs and indirect costs.

Direct costs include:

• remuneration for the principal investigator,
• remuneration for co-investigators in the project (the so-called additional remuneration),
• purchase of materials and small equipment,
• outsourced services,
• business trips, visits and consultations (applies to costs other than mandatory foreign fellowship),
• compensation for collective investigators and
• other costs crucial to the research project in compliance with the Types of costs in research projects funded by the National Science Centre.

The project budget must not include the funds for the purchase or manufacturing of research equipment, devices or software, or for a foreign fellowship.

Pursuant to the Cooperation Agreement between the NAWA and the NCN, the NAWA shall pay the cost of a foreign fellowship at the research institution. The principal investigator in a project recommended for funding is required to file a fellowship funding request with the NAWA. Information on the fellowship and fellowship cost is collected solely to be provided to the NAWA and will not be carried over to the summary of costs in the proposal submitted to the NCN.

Monograph publication costs are not eligible if claimed as direct costs.

Indirect costs include:

• indirect cost of Open Access (up to 2% of direct costs) that may be designated only for the cost of open access to publications or research data;
• other indirect costs (up to 20% of direct costs) that may be spent on costs that are related indirectly to the research project, including the cost of open access to publications and research data.
• The institution must arrange with the principal investigator for the distribution of at least 25% of funds arising from the other indirect costs actually incurred in the project.

Under SONATINA 10, funds must be planned for:

1. employment of the principal investigator pursuant to a full-time employment contract for the research project performance period, in accordance with the Regulations;
2. research projects, in accordance with the budget laid down in the proposal; and
3. principal investigator’s foreign fellowship at the foreign research institution of their choice, covering:

1. a scholarship of PLN 7,500 for each month of the Fellow’s stay at the foreign host institution;
2. a lump-sum subsistence and accommodation costs ranging from PLN 4,000 to PLN 12,000, depending on the country of destination (pursuant to Annex to the Cooperation Agreement between the NAWA and the NCN of 12 September 2019);
3. lump-sum travel expenses ranging from PLN 1,000 to PLN 6,500, depending on country of destination (pursuant to Annex to the Cooperation Agreement between the NAWA and the NCN of 12 September 2019);

a lump-sum subsistence and accommodation costs of PLN 2,000 per month, as required by a Fellow who is a holder of a certificate of severe or moderate disability.

Please note that only the principal investigator may be employed with remuneration paid from the pool allocated for full-time salaries. Full-time salaries for post-docs, senior researchers or special auxiliary post holders must not be planned under SONATINA.

NCN scholarships and doctoral scholarships must not be considered under SONATINA.

Additional remuneration can be used to cover salaries for students and PhD students.

The cost of open access to publications subject to the NCN’s Open Access Policy must not be planned as direct costs.

State aid must not be applied for under the call. For more information, please refer to the State Aid section.

Required information and annexes are laid down in §6 of the Annex to Resolution No 106/2025 of 6 November 2025.

The proposal form is available here.

As of the calls launched on 15 December 2023, project literature DOES NOT count towards the page limit in the short and full project descriptions.

Proposals are subject to an eligibility check and merit-based evaluation.

The eligibility check is performed by the scientific coordinators. Only complete proposals that meet all the requirements set forth in the call text may be recommended for a merit-based evaluation. Proposals may also be rejected as not eligible at the stage of merit-based evaluation.

The merit-based evaluation of proposals is performed in two stages.

Stage I: Proposals are evaluated by the Expert Team established by the NCN based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto, with the exception of the full project description. First, each proposal is evaluated by two members of the Expert Team acting independently. In the case of a proposal which is assigned an auxiliary NCN review panel specifying disciplines covered by NCN review panels other than the one to which the proposal was submitted, the Chair of the Expert Team may decide to request another review from a member of another Expert Team (the so-called interdisciplinary proposals).

Then, at the first meeting, the Expert Team discusses all proposals and compiles a list of proposals recommended for stage II of evaluation.

Stage II: Proposals are referred to at least two external reviewers who draft their individual reviews based on the data included in the proposal and annexes thereto, with the exception of the short project description. When the reviews are delivered, the principal investigator is interviewed. The principal investigators in proposals recommended for stage II of merit-based evaluation will receive all reviews of their proposals at least 7 days before the interview.

An interview with the principal investigator at stage II of merit-based evaluation is held in English and is forecasted for July 2026. An exact time of the interview will be communicated to the principal investigator at least 14 days in advance.  

Based on the individual reviews of Experts and Reviewers and Expert Team’s interview with the principal investigator, the Expert Team agrees on the final evaluation of the proposal and compiles a ranking list of proposals, specifying proposals recommended for funding.

To find out more on the proposal evaluation procedure, please read the Proposal evaluation procedure for the Expert Teams and the video tutorial.

The following criteria are reviewed in the evaluation of proposals:

1. compliance with the research criteria;
2. quality and innovative nature of research or tasks to be performed;
3. impact of the research project on the advancement of the scientific discipline;
4. assessment of feasibility of the research;
5. scientific achievements of the principal investigator, including publications in renowned academic press/ journals;
6. evaluation of the results of other research projects conducted by the principal investigator previously funded by the NCN or from other sources;
7. relevance of the costs with regard to the subject and scope of the research;
8. grounds for choosing the participating entity or the project;
9. relevance of the choice of the host institution for the foreign fellowship, including academic rank of the foreign research institution, accuracy of the choice of the research institution and impact on the development of the principal investigator’s research career; and
10. preparation of the proposal and compliance with other requirements set forth in the call text.

Proposals are evaluated pursuant to the proposal evaluation criteria applicable to SONATINA.

Proposals are evaluated by inter-panel teams comprising experts appointed for particular research domains, i.e. HS, ST or NZ.

Experts are selected by the NCN Council among outstanding Polish and foreign researchers who are at least PhD holders. Expert Teams are set up for each call edition. The composition of the Expert Team is subject to the number and subjects of proposals submitted to each panel.

The call results will be published on the NCN website and communicated to the applicants by way of a decision by the NCN Director within 6 months of the proposal submission date, by the end of September 2026.

Pursuant to the Open Access Policy, where possible, all research results must be made available in immediate open access.

The National Science Centre recognizes the following publication routes as compliant with its Open Access Policy:

1. publication in open access journals and on open access platforms registered, or with pending registration, in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ);
2. publication in subscription journals (in which the articles require payment of a subscription fee) and/or hybrid journals (in which some of the articles are open access and some require payment of a subscription fee); in case of publishing in subscription-based model, it is advisable that Author Accepted Manuscript (AAM, i.e. the final manuscript version created by the author, including all the revisions introduced after the peer review, and accepted for publication in the journal; other terms: postprint or author’s accepted manuscript) or preprint, be made available in the repository listed in the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR); if the AAM/preprint is not made available, it will not affect the acknowledgment of expenses or the settlement of the project;
3. publication in journals covered by an open access licence within the framework of so-called transformative agreements (which are available within limited time in accordance with the applicable agreements between national publishing consortia; journals covered by Polish transformative agreements are listed on the website of the Virtual Library of Science.

Manuscripts must be published using the following licences:

• Route 1: Creative Commons (CC) licence or equivalent open licence in line with the open access policies;
• Route 2: Version of Record (VoR, i.e. manuscript version published in a journal with its own typeface and branding; other terms: published version or publisher’s pdf), AAM or preprint should be made available in the repository using CC licence or equivalent open licence in line with the open access policies;
• Route 3: CC licence or equivalent open licence in line with the open access policies.

Eligibility of Article Processing Charges: The costs are eligible for each publication route and each CC licence or equivalent open licence in line with the open licence policies. The NCN does not recommend incurring APC fees for articles published under Route 2, if the AAM or preprint can be made available in the repository at no charge.

The data underpinning scientific publications resulting from the projects must be well-documented pursuant to the standards of the machine or manual findability, accessibility, interoperability or reusability (the so-called FAIR Data). Where possible, data must be made available in the repository using CC0 or CC BY 4.0 licence. Other licences can also be used as long as they ensure an equivalent level of data openness and reusability as CC0 or CC BY 4.0.

The term “data” is understood by the NCN as data collected and unprocessed as well as data generated and analysed, other than scientific publications. The definition comprises all forms, both digital and non-digital.

Please read the Information for Applicants and Guidelines for applicants to complete proposals under SONATINA 10 available on our website.

Should you have any questions or queries, please contact us by e-mail, at: informacja@ncn.gov.pl.

If you are intending to submit a proposal to SONATINA 9:

1. read the call documents included in the call text, in particular:

• Resolution on the terms and conditions of the SONATINA call for proposals,
• Proposal form template where you can find out about information and annexes required to complete the electronic proposal form in the OSF submission system;
• Regulations on awarding funding for research tasks funded by the National Science Centre as regards research projects;
• Cooperation Agreement between the NAWA and the NCN for foreign fellowship funding under SONATINA ;

2. read the proposal submission procedure;
3. decide how long the project should last: 24 or 36 months;
4. decide on the research institution to host the foreign fellowship and duration thereof: 3 to 6 months (full months);
5. obtain a document (in English) confirming approval by the mentor from the research institution hosting the fellowship according to the template in the OSF submission system (Consent to the fellowship);
6. draw up a document confirming that the principal investigator has earned a PhD degree and if the principal investigator is yet to earn a PhD degree, a declaration by the PhD supervisor or certificate by a competent institution of the forecasted PhD award date (by 15 May 2026);
7. obtain information from the host institution that is required to complete the proposal and find out about the internal procedures that may affect the proposal submission and project performance (procedure for acquiring signature(s) of authorised representative(s) of the institution to confirm submission of the proposal);
8. draw up the following documents:

1. in Polish:

• description for the general public (1 standard page, A4);
• work plan including research tasks;
• in the case of research projects carried out by a group of entities, a research project cooperation agreement;
• administrative declarations by the principal investigator and the host institution for the project;

2. in English:

• project’s abstract;
• description for the general public (1 standard page, A4);
• work plan including research tasks;
• research project descriptions: short project description (up to 5 standard pages, A4) and full project description (up to 15 standard pages, A4) – project literature does not count towards the page limit;
• information on the research team, including information on the principal investigator, as required by the call text;
• information on the foreign research institution hosting the fellowship and justification for choosing that institution (up to 2 standard pages, A4);
• document confirming research institution’s consent to host the foreign fellowship of the principal investigator;
• research project budget;
• in the case of a research project carried out in cooperation with a foreign partner, information on international cooperation as well as description of benefits that may result from such international cooperation;
• information on the data management plan concerning data generated or used in the course of a research project;
• information on the ethical aspects of the project, including any consents, opinions, permits and/or approvals necessary to carry out the project in compliance with generally applicable laws and best practices;
• in the case of research projects which include clinical trials with a medicinal product or a medical device, a detailed justification of the non-commercial nature of the trials;
• in the case of research projects covering research performed or completed by the principal investigator, or with respect to which the principal investigator applies for funding under other NCN calls or from other sources, a description of similar research tasks with reasons justifying the need to have them funded under the project.

Before the proposal is submitted to the NCN, please:

1. check if information in and annexes to the proposal are correct. Verification of the proposal for completeness in OSF by pressing the Check completeness button does not guarantee that information has been entered correctly and that the required annexes have been attached;
2. disable editing of the final version of the proposal to the NCN;
3. download and sign the confirmation of proposal submission in the call (signature of the principal investigator and authorised representative of the institution); and
4. attach the confirmation of proposal submission with a signature.

When the proposal is completed and all required annexes are attached, use the Send to NCN button to submit the proposal to the NCN electronically via the OSF submission system.

Upon the end of the call for proposals:

1. evaluation of proposals will be carried out;
2. after each stage of evaluation, the funding decision of the NCN Director will be served;
3. if the proposal is recommended for funding, a research project funding agreement will be entered into; and
4. the project will be carried out pursuant to the funding agreement.

In the event of a breach of the call procedure or other formal infringements, the applicant may appeal against the decision of the NCN Director with the Committee of Appeals of the NCN Council. The appeal must be lodged within 14 days of the effective service of the decision.

Before the foreign fellowship start date:

1. prepare the following documents required by the NAWA:

• a PDF file of the proposal submitted to the NCN,
• a description of the fellowship, including a schedule and grounds for choosing the host institution and mentor,
• a scanned copy of the invitation from the host institution,
• the grounds for any modifications regarding the fellowship covered by the NCN proposal (if any).

2. submit a proposal for fellowship funding to the NAWA (proposals are accepted on a rolling basis) no earlier than 6 months and no later than 3 months before the foreign fellowship start date;
3. having received a decision from the NAWA Director, sign the fellowship funding agreement.